Management at the Sanlitun Megabox cinema, Beijing, pulled the plug less than a minute into a screening of the film on Thursday, citing technical issues, according to local bloggers. The government-owned Shanghai United Circuit then issued an emergency notice requiring the city's cinemas to halt screenings of the film and grant refunds to ticketholders, according to reports. Since then, the film has not been shown in any Chinese cinema. Censors are thought to have been offended by a scene that included full-frontal shots (of male slaves), which would usually earn any film an automatic ban under Chinese screening rules.

However, Chinese publicists for the film said at the weekend they were working to secure a new release date. "Thanks to all our friends and enthusiastic fans," the publicists said on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, before adding: "We will try our best to do our job, so as to allow Django Unchained to meet all of you as soon as possible." Distributor Sony has also said it is working with the Chinese authorities to reschedule the release.

Django Unchained's Chinese release has been chaotic. Earlier this month Sony's Chinese branch implied the censors had agreed the film could be screened uncut, bar minor tweaks to the colour and copiousness of blood, which were reportedly to be carried out by Tarantino. That came as a surprise – 38 minutes was cut from the Chinese release of the Wachowski siblings' raunchy epic fantasy Cloud Atlas in January, while James Bond film Skyfall also had sections removed or revised. The sudden removal of Django Unchained from Chinese cinema screens will have come as a shock to star Leonardo DiCaprio, who did a string of telephone interviews with local media to promote the film.

"You could argue it's acceptable for them to stop the film because of the content," one cinema chain manager told the Hollywood Reporter anonymously. "But the problem here is the way they did it. To stop such a high-profile film on its first day of release in such a manner, to such immediate effect – it's really unheard of."

He added that the official reason for halting screenings, a technical glitch, was implausible since the code required to access the digital cinema package for the film still functioned. "But we were told it would be a serious breach of regulations if anyone is to show the film now," said the manager.